old gray
1
nothing
in my eccentricity
like
old gray stone
we have some fences around
here
a few are nice
while most are overgrown
there are some buildings
too
that stand
the association for me
is
with ghosts
of those who set
or
raised whichever and
the story
with the persons who are lost
maybe
in wars between the states
or
the war with England for first freedom
and
there’s what
to keep out
what
to keep in
speaking of first and
who
was here
and to extend the poet
classic and ironic meanings
it might have been
true and
could
still be that
good fences make good neighbors
so then
stone fences make stone
neighbors
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texture
moss
what is fallen
what remains of what
has
fallen and what
keeps the form and
stands
for meaning
living metaphor for
boundary
for
protection
that could yet
be actual
for a building made with local
material
and that we mean to keep
and
to repair
and it’s the fences we have more of
in
all states and they are old
and some look pushed together while others
forgotten or
ignored
or someone owning
likes
the fallen texture
lopped shapes
even the worked through parts
made low
through
time
and unknown circumstances
they make good pictures
I believe
photographed
or
painted or fashioned with material
of one’s own
color
black and white
what
is decided
what’s at hand
or if we may
to
go there
smell
touch the long sides or
where they’re broken
touch
the nubs and
feel
the age
the stories
and I will make up stories of and
for
the ghosts there or
nearby
to have a story by my
home fire and
maybe an invitation for a hearing
by yours
3
the buildings and the fences
and
especially the fences
to drive by
as
the buildings are kept mostly at
a distance
but all
appreciable and made when
words
like
middlesex meant
something for a status and
a name
and the word we know
from
another poem
later Gettysburg close
about which
so
much has been said and sung and on
which
to borrow from a third so much depends
though
these are matters
upright or collapsed
like
dreams and
visions
we forget
to tell
the next ones on the way
the next ones
here
c l couch
Frost on fences, also Longfellow and William Carlos Williams
with another note by me
an unintentional study
even a reverie
though
I could have meant that
briefly
photo by Richard R on Unsplash
stand as it’s delivered
look at the yellow
paling
the blue
pasteling green branches look lighter
too
and if we’re waking take it easy
while impulsively receiving
everything that
happens
stand as may
as all the selections might
in
the paint-washed and more sensoral day
c l couch
photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash
grayed over to see
and gray could have a scent or
touch the gray to feel
c l couch
photo by Spruce on Unsplash
unedged day or night
all the senses for a change
amorphous aware
c l couch
photo by Branimir Balogović on Unsplash
a telling of creation
what is the sense of things
in creation
first nothing
we suppose
and then something
a sound
perhaps
and then some light
to they
could see
what they were doing
though I imagine
angels who were
blind
or deaf
could know something
was happening
the light from dark
or light and
dark
that is
two halves
both being worthy
then some water
black
and barely lit
and then some land
pushed up
somehow
by a hand
that might like molding
or making
in another way
and the land shall need
the sun and moon
water already
extant
and now some creatures
on the land
there already being
beings
in the water
and everyone will need fed
and so have plants
for food
as well as beauty
and we shall say that
this is good
and who shall say
hmm
we need someone
on Earth
to day
and so we make some people
mold them wondrously
such beauty
from the ground
and they shall have five senses
mainly
though not all
with all
and they shall speak
who can
or gesture
or express in another way
everything
to say the act of making
to a lesser degree
but make that noise
anyway
and then settle into
utterances
that God can understand
(having made language)
and they
and we
can understand each other
understanding
being a first feature
in the mind
of creation
and to degrees
our own
based on something else
the riskiest thing
to have been made
and how the angels
might have argue
over this
a thing
it seems
they do not have
though
once beholding
might argue
for
in angel-workers
negotiating with
the boss
and it’s will
of course
the wish
the dream
the mind
the spirit
and the choice
to think
and also feel
to decide
and first
one’s course through Eden
and then
the names of animals
then after
all the sadnesses
a course on Earth
and all the things on Earth
to get
to know
c l couch
photo by Elvis Bekmanis on Unsplash
(x = speak)
x
x
LoveSpeak
x
What does God’s love say
In the face of danger?
Through many dangers,
Toils, and snares
God’s love says
I’m here
The love is here
The source is here
The host is here
We’re here
x
Though there be anger,
Scorn, and fear
From enemies and friends
Alike
Because doubt and unbelief
Might have to have
Their way,
The love of God is first
And follows
Like the currents inside Earth
And over,
The moving pillars
Cloud or fire
That are before
And after
x
Alongside in
The truth of companionship
But I can’t see that
You can
It’s more than senses
With which we perceive
As best we can
x
Presence and love are better
They are inside
And out
They speak without words
Until it’s time for words
x
When we have ears to hear
And cannot hear,
Count on the company
Of the divine
To know us better,
Pick us up
If fallen,
Go with us onward
Leading, should we ask
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
x
“Amazing Grace” (the hymn) referenced above
x
(x = space)
x
x
Signpost
x
Let’s see
Let’s hear
Let’s smell
Let’s taste
Let’s touch
Let’s move in time
And between dimensions
Of the multiverse
How many senses do we know
How many are to come
Into our knowing
x
The episodes are so ordinary
As to be in black and white
A visit
To a small town
An employee
Inside a bank
Peddlers
Sometimes alcoholics
Sometimes astronauts
Who are not ordinary
But take our attitudes
With them
x
Something usual
Then everything must
Turn
Because under the sun
Or moon
Is not enough
Sometimes we must enter
The zone of twilight
x
Mister Serling says so
And he writes so
He is right
To send us there
Because what we know
Is not enough
x
I just put down a piece of toast
And it stood on end
I might be going
Somewhere next
Be with you
There
x
C L Couch
x
x
The Twilight Zone, 1959 – 1964
156 episodes
x
The Cocoon Nebula along with its trail of dark nebulosity. 11 hours of LRGB combined with 10 hours of hydrogen-alpha exposure.
Photo by Aldebaran S on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Catbird
(recalled)
x
I’d like to speak
Of God
But sometimes silence
Is called for
To listen to the maybe
Maybe something grand
Maybe single
Bird-call
Can one hear the dawn
Or the vibrations in
The setting sun?
Hearing apparatus
Is not required
So much as to
Open up whoever we are
Enough to gather in
What the quiet Earth
Has to say
A gift for any, all the senses
We may have
x
Speak through the Earth
If we are mute
Savor unimpeded,
Unreconstituted wind
If we have lost our
Sense of taste
Let the sun move us through
The day
If we have no movement
Otherwise
What we’ve had,
What we’ve never had,
What we’ve lost
x
We have so much
To take in
Then contribute
To the cause,
Nourishing
And strengthening
All our
Good communities
x
C L Couch
x
x
On the Road from Stanley to Boise, Idaho
By TonyCastro – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83018649
x
(x = space)
x
x
Proportional Response
x
It’s an eye for eye
Without, we hope,
Everyone going blind
x
But then the blind we have,
Over-sensate in four ways,
Might have to lead
x
The only ones who know
How to have sight
Without the eyes
x
C L Couch
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https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-u-carries-airstrike-against-233431848.html
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By Airman 1st Class Chad Warren – US Air Force Public Affairs [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7377988
A flight of F-15C Eagles from the flies during a solar eclipse in Okinawa July 22, 2009.
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